American companies have a golden opportunity to expand the country's leadership in the global market. Industry leaders meeting this week in New York laid out the huge opportunity but also warned that red tape and a relative scarcity of personnel with the right know-how threaten to stifle efforts to expand this clean-energy source.

Masdar, the $22 billion green city that United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi is building in the desert just outside its borders, has canceled its plans to generate all of its own clean energy and to emit zero carbon.